A brown bear looks out from a cage on February 1, 2013, in the biggest rehabilitation center for bears in Europe, the Carpathian National Nature Park. (OLEXANDER ZOBIN/AFP/Getty Images)

PORTAGE, Alaska — Spring is only a few weeks away and the brown bears at a conservation center in Portage are starting to wake up.

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KTUU-TV reports that the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center's bears are waking up from their five-month slumber. Mike Miller, the center's executive director, says hibernating bears wake up slowly and are groggy. He says it is warmer temperatures and melting snow that tells the bears it's time to come out of hibernation.

Miller says now is the time for Alaska homeowners to go around their yards and remove bird seed and anything else that might attract hungry bears.

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